Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless
Broke-Ass Halloween Costumes Gone Wrong
Halloween can be painful– and for reasons besides buying bags of mini-candies at the drugstore, eating them all at once while lounging in bed watching Netflix, and subsequently worrying about tummy aches/lack of dental insurance/pants button-popping (haaayyy). Rather, Halloween can be a financial pain for people on a budget, a.k.a.
Why Trying to Be Fabulous Just Makes You Look Like a Loser
Enrique* could often be found leaning against other people’s parked cars, making a pouty face and checking out his own reflection in storefronts. Even though he was a hairstylist, he refused to get his hair cut at the salon he worked at, and instead paid significantly more for a greasy,
What I Learned About Dating from the Chinatown YMCA
If you want me to like you, you don’t have to take me out to dinner or buy me things. You don’t have to have a fancy job, or live in a trendy neighborhood. You don’t even have to dress well. Besides finding someone who can feed me, there’s just
Why You Probably Shouldn’t Get a Discount Massage in a Foreign Country
In a lot of ways, being broke is about picking and choosing where to spend your money. Maybe you shop your dad’s closet, but pay $13 at the independent movie theater every week. Maybe you eat $2 dumplings year round, but blow your wad on cool vacations a couple of
How to Convince People That You Are Fashionable, When You Really Look Like a Disaster
As Countess LuAnn’s auto-tuned crooning on Real Housewives of New York taught us, “money can’t buy you class.” I firmly believe this– look at all of the lavishly rich ladies out there who still look like tacky messes (again, see any Real Housewives for an example). Less money to spend on
How to Deal with Mooches Without Going (Completely) Insane
Deep in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown lies my greatest enemy. In one room of a six-bedroom apartment, he slumbers atop the mountain of dirty clothes that cover his sheet-less mattress on the floor. He eats his roommates’ food, never refills the Brita water pitcher, and would rather
Fall Fashion on a Budget: Dress Like a Cool Schoolgirl
Here in New York, temperatures have dropped from unbearably hot to only slightly sweltering. Unexpected rainy days make me yell curses when I accidentally step in puddles that fill my jelly sandals with water. Obnoxious kids in school uniforms have suddenly appeared on the train that I take to work,